Of height maps

[Galactygon]

Height maps are not yet covered in the IESDP, so I thought I will do some of that. And yes, they do in fact have a function. Height maps displace the characters' avatars (but not their feet circles) by an x amount (vertically and only upwards) depending on the lightness of the RGB of the search map (I haven't tested this with non greyscale colours yet). White fully displaces the characters, while black does nothing. Any shades inbetween displace the character by varying degrees.

 

Here is a comparison between white and black:

 

 

I can imagine height maps being not as useful in most situations because the change is too subtle for players to notice, but they come pretty well when the topography suddenly changes (such as in stairs).

 

-Galactygon

[devSin]

Yeah. For the restoration of AR1010 in BG1UB, I tried to emulate BioWare's method of "fuzzing" the rough terrain, and there's a small bridge at the southern region of the map where I tried to get the ascent/descent reasonable (since it has no relation to the actual area art, you only have to map non-standard terrain -- you get lighter going up, but you eventually end up with the same gray at the top as you had at the bottom).

 

IIRC, the palette is 4-bit (16 colors; grayscale).

[Avenger]

Thanks for clearing up the effects of the height map.

I agree that all known versions of the heightmap are 4 bits per pixel.

But i'm not 100% convinced it is impossible to have 8 bits per pixel (and thus a bigger effect).

[devSin]

Possibly, but I don't think it's necessary. Since you don't have to simulate actual height (only changes in height), 16 steps is sufficient.

[Galactygon]

Well, the change in height should be made larger and more noticable.

 

-Galactygon

[Rabain]

Iirc don't Height maps also speed or slow the character avatar's movement going down or up a slope?

[Avenger]

Iirc don't Height maps also speed or slow the character avatar's movement going down or up a slope?

I never noticed that.

[Galactygon]

The change in the offset of the animation might give an illusion of that.

 

-Galactygon